Firefox emerges as credible threat in browser battle

San Jose Mercury News ^ | Mon, Nov. 29, 2004 | Mike Langberg

[nickcarraway]

Firefox is one very hot browser, pardon the pun, and your computer will be safer if you switch to this free software that's heating up the charts.

There's been a seismic shift during November, with Firefox emerging as the first credible competitive threat in a decade to Microsoft's aging Internet Explorer browser for Windows.

[Diddle E. Squat]

You still need to use your IE browser on Microsoft's web site for Windows updates. I'm fairly certain that IE is the only browser that works for Windows updates.

Oh yes, I was only trying to update IE using IE, which is why it was so weird that it would no longer update.

[Allan]

NEAT!

[Dales]

Scroll down or use the direct link for the Windows Update Firefox extension-- adds the Windows Update to the Tools menu.

[MilleniumBug]

I still prefer crazybrowser, netcaptor, and wichio. They integrate with roboform better and saving tabs is easier. Firefox has got a way to go.

[milestogo]

Also... whats the ctrl - o equilivent for firefox?

Ctrl-L.

[BibChr]

Great! Let me know what you end up deciding. I've used AB for years, and enjoyed seeing it grow. Over Firefox, so far I like that the tabs are at the bottom and are movable. Also, you can just customize it further; and minimize can send it down to the systray, which is a cool feature.

Dan

[dennisw]

Heh... in other words keep removing the cookie and you don't have to register to see San Jose Mercury News articles. Same for some other publications.

[edchambers]

(XP is going to have to wait a couple of months until I can budget the 99 bucks for it,)

Just curious what are your system specs? Xp came on my Dell with a 2 Ghz processor and 256 megs of ram it worked pretty good, with 512 megs it works great.I tried it on my old 500Mhz HP with 128 megs and it was a DOG it was stable enough but it was so slow I couldn't tell if it was locked up or not.I have a copy of Me that I've never used because literally every one I've talked to says 98se is better.I wonder if Microsoft still sells 98se? With all the upgrades I think it would be a better option than XP for people with a less than cutting edge PC.

[Jackknife]

[i]For example one of my favorites is the bbcode extention.[/i]

I downloaded this extension after reading your post. now this is cool, and time-saving! I was not aware of this one. Thanks for the tip! 8)

[Jackknife]

Well....that didn't work. Hmmmmmm........

[ken21]

i'm using it now.

say, how do you get all of your bookmarks from explorer over to firefox? some arrived, some did not.

[airedale]

You might want to pick up a piece of freeware called Spywareblaster from: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/index.html It works with Firefox as well as IE. It helps block spyware and adware from finding it's way onto your computer.

One comment it does occasionally find some things that they rate as dangerous which probably aren't. There is part of Real Rhapsody that they rate as dangerous. I think it's because it reports what you're playing and the digital rights to one of the firms that are looking for copyright violations. I don't know that's for sure, but it's my best guess. If you have this and spybot you'll find that Spybot defers to Spywareblaster for ActiveX protection.

If you don't have Spybot and AdAware both of which are also free you should get them as well. They all work slightly differently and form an overlapping protective ring.

[pepsi_junkie]

I dunno, two of us have a problem. Perphaps you'll have better luck than I, bound to be others. Please ping me if you do figure it out, I'll do the same!

[mommadooo3]

I installed FF after our FReepers recommended it. (I got sooooo sick of IE freezing up on me) [btw...that was AFTER I downloaded the newest version of IE and ALL the security patches they said I needed....HOURS of downloads]

I STILL have not figured out how to get FF 'up to speed'. There are game sites that tell me I need to 'update' my java... my Yahoo stuff has gone missing and can't be found... my windoze media player has no download listings for FF... Adobe has nothing for FF...my 'e-mail' has gone really wacky.

Should I go BACK to IE or pay a 'real' computer 'geek' to help me???( or maybe just toss the puter over our hill?)

[jim_trent]

Whats the difference between Mozilla and Foxfire? I am on Mozilla now. Is it worth the change?

[Amore]

I switched to Foxfire about a month ago, based on recommendations from Freepers. I, too, need to figure out what extensions I need. But I don't see anything called "Bug Me Not."

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

I've got my laptop dual booting between Linux and Windows XP. Yes, Linux, even the packaged versions like Red Hat Linux Enterprise Edition (which I have - costs about $70 at CompUSA) is a real pain to install. Especially dual boot if you want to share your hard drive between Win and Linux. Then, there is the lack of drivers. I can't get my wireless network up with Linux on my laptop because there are no drivers for it. I can put in a recent fix that packages the Windows driver but then I have to recompile Linux with that driver installed. What a pain!!! I would not go to Linux unless you just want to learn about it...

I have to learn Linux because NASA is starting to use it a lot.

[dbwz]

Here ya go...

[Terabitten]

I think you just answered my question about whether I should go to Linux. :)

[ken21]

i have a new compaq amd 64 notebook, downloaded sp 1 + 2, but encountered el problema:

pop up, grey boxes with "!timed out" error messages, and web site not available, etc.

so, i installed foxfire + the same thing happens.

last night, while surfing on the net, everything just froze up, crash.

any suggestions? my isp said to take zone alarm + the ad blockers off, which i did.

thanks.